^f'o^^l Riley, Description of a Ncm Nighthaxvk. 43 I 



livers and can be tolled up with them very close to a boat. Should 

 a liver sink before it can be picked up by a gull while hovering, 

 the bird will settle on the water and disappear under the surface 

 in the effort to obtain the coveted tidbit. 



The following special report was received from Capt. William 

 F. Stanley, September 23, 1902. 



"The first flight of Herring Gulls, about 800, arrived at Great 

 Duck Island, March 12 ; their numbers steadily increased until 

 the 20th of May. The first egg was found May 15, and the first 

 completed set of three eggs on May 22. The last set of eggs 

 hatched August 3-5. Fifteen nests were marked and watched in 

 order to determine the time occupied in incubation, which proved 

 to be as follows : i in 24 days ; 2 in 25 days ; 5 in 26 days ; 4 in 

 27 days; 3 in 28 days. Young birds were about five weeks old 

 when they began to fly. September 16 all the old birds left the 

 island, leaving the young birds to care for themselves." 



A NEW SUBSPECIES OF NIGHTHAWK FROM THE 

 BAHAMA ISLANDS.! 



BY J. H. RILEY. 



The nighthawk of the Bahama Islands has generally been 

 recorded as Chordeiles fninor, but while collecting birds, in con- 

 junction wdth Mr. S. H. Derickson, on the Geographical Society 

 of Baltimore's Bahama Expedition, we managed to secure a small 

 series of these birds. A comparison of this material with a series 

 of Chordeiles virginianiis minor from Cuba and the Isle of Pines, 

 and with Chordeiles virginianiis chapman i from Florida, proves the 

 Bahaman bird to be a well-marked geographical race. As it is 

 apparently without a name it may be known as: 



' Published here by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion. 



